Sample of literary figures
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Jules-Joseph Maigret
Male
French detective inspector and something of an icon within the genre. Maigret was a farmer’s boy who became a cop by chance and quickly earned himself an office at the Paris police headquarters at Quai des Orfèvres. Georges Simenon’s books do not only follow the inspector’s investigations, but also his private life, including a happy, but childless, marriage.
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Reginald Wexford
Male
Inspector Reginald “Reg” Wexford, who operates in the fictional town of Kingsmarkham in Sussex, was a traditional detective when Ruth Rendell first introduced him. He is overweight and has a foul temper, which leads to conflicts with his superiors, but he has a pleasant and understanding family. Wexford has become more tolerant over the years and has developed into a major authority on human character.
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Alan Banks
Male
Detective Inspector Banks works in the fictional town of Eastvale in Swainsdale, a fictional region based on Yorkshire. He is the calm and systematic protagonist in a series of novels and short stories by the British author Peter Robinson. DI Banks likes model railways, sixties rock and his colleague Annie Cabbot, with whom he has had an off and on relationship after divorcing his wife Sandra.
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Mma Makutsi
Female
She struggles with her poor skin and unflattering spectacles, but Mma Grace Makutsi has impressively high grades from her secretarial course and is a lady with skin on her nose and a sharp tongue. In Alexander McCall Smith’s suite of novels about The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency in Botswana’s capital Gaborone, Mma Makutsi is first employed, but after a while becomes a part-owner of the agency. She is also happily married to Phuti Radiphuti.